Major networks order pilots for the fall – FULL REPORT

In preparation for the fall TV season, the major networks have started putting in their orders for pilots, assessing which will get full series orders when the 2013-2014 TV season rolls around. Some networks ordered more than others, naturally. NBC, in particular, needs to fill the vacuum created by the exits of The Office and 30 Rock, so it’s no surprise that the network ordered four dramas and three comedy pilots, the most of any network.

-An untitled drama from executive producer Rand Ravich, whose previous stint with the network resulted in the short-lived series Life. The project, produced by 20th Century Fox TV, is an action thriller set in and around Washington DC, and follows an idealistic Secret Service agent who finds himself at the center of an international crisis on his first day on the job. Ravich is executive producing with his producing partner Far Shariat.

–The Sixth Gun, a drama produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost), is based on the graphic novel of the same name. The drama tells the story of six mythical guns in the Old West. When the Sixth Gun, the most powerful and dangerous of the six, resurfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces are awakened. Only Drake Sinclair, a self-serving gunfighter, can protect the girl and ward off the forces of evil.

–The Blacklist, a drama written by Jon Bokenkamp (Perfect Stranger), which centers on the world’s most wanted criminal – a man who mysteriously turns himself in and offers to give up every one of his partners, under the condition that he be allowed to work with a new FBI agent with whom he appears to have no connection.

–Girlfriend In A Coma is a comedy that tells the story of a 34 year-old woman who wakes up from a coma after nearly two decades, to discover that she has a 17 year-old daughter from a pregnancy she was unaware of prior to her coma. Dick Wolf, Brixius, Danielle Gelber and Peter Jankowski executive produce.

-Justin Spitzer’s Holding Patterns is an ensemble multi-camera comedy about a group of friends whose lives irrevocably change after they survive a plane crash. Spitzer, Traugott and Rachel Kaplan executive produce.

-An untitled single-camera comedy from Up All Night executive producer DJ Nash and Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films. Loosely based on Nash’s life, it depicts the story of a son who idolizes his blind father and resents his mother’s immaturity, as he watches his family come closer together following his parents’ divorce. Originally set in the 1980s, the comedy now takes place in present day.

-An untitled multi-camera comedy from Universal TV and Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s production company, Hazy Mills. The project follows Hayes, who plays a confused father that must figure out how to be a parent to his 14-year-old daughter, who just moved in, while also coping with a temperamental new boss at work. Credit: Deadline

–Rake is a comedy-drama starring Greg Kinnear as a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense attorney. They are the Ruben Fleischer-produced drama. The series comes to US shores from Peter Duncan, who created the original Australian series, and will be executive-produced by Peter Tolan (Rescue Me) and Michael Wimer (2012). Credit: Deadline

–The List is a drama from writer Paul Zbyszewski (Lost) and director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) that centers on Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Shaker who leads the hunt for the who stole “the list”, a file with the identities of every member of the Federal Witness Security Program, when it becomes apparent that members of the program are being killed one-by-one. Zbyszewski and Fleischer executive produce.

–Sleepy Hollow, from writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, has Underworld director Len Wiseman on board. The series is a modern–day supernatural thriller based on The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, following Ichabod Crane as he partners with Sleepy Hollow’s local female sheriff to solve the mysteries of a town at the center of an interminable battle between good and evil. Kurtzman and Orci wrote the script with up-and-coming writer Phillip Iscove, on whose idea the project is based.

–Delirium is a drama based on Lauren Oliver’s bestselling book trilogy about a world where love is declared illegal and is capable of being eliminated with a special procedure. Lena Holoway, a woman with 95 days to go before her procedure, makes the biggest mistake a person can make in this new society – she falls in love. Karyn Usher executive produces with Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope.

–I Suck At Girls is a comedy from Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, based on Justin Halpern’s book about a boy maturing into manhood, and a man maturing into fatherhood, in a pre-Google world. ; Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer’s To My Assistant; Andrew Gurland & Justin Hurwitz’s House Rules; and David Rosen’s Friends And Family. Also getting the greenlight today was Alec Sulkin/Wellesley Wild/Seth MacFarlane’s comedy, which went straight to series.

–To My Assistant is a single-camera comedy from Warner Bros. TV and Lin Pictures, revolving around the assistants at a big New York law firm who band together as a family to help each other cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who test their patience and sanity day-in and day-out.

–Friends And Family is a comedy from David Rosen (creator/executive producer of the MTV cult comedy I Just Want My Pants Back), and is an adaptation of the 2007 British romantic comedy series Gavin & Stacey, which chronicled the long-distance relationship between a man from England and a woman from Wales who must cope with their eccentric families and friends. The FOX version, produced by Sony TV and BBC Worldwide Productions, focuses on the key life moments of the lovers, who try to maintain their relationship while negotiating their hectic families’ lives.

–House Rules is a comedy written by Andrew Gurland and Justin Hurwitz, who executive produce with David Dobkin, Peter Principato and Paul Young. It centers on a neurotic family with contempt for all things normal that tries their best to fit into their small Midwest town where politeness is the stock-in-trade.

–The Returned is a drama from The Killing‘s Aaron Zelman, and follows the lives of the people of the small town of Aurora, whose lives are forever changed when their deceased loved ones mysteriously return to life as though nothing has changed.

–Venice is a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet, written by Without a Trace‘s Byron Balasco, centering on two rival families living in “California’s most seductive ‘city’”, and the forbidden romance that blossoms between them.

Pulling is a sitcom about three dysfunctional women in their 30s living life on their own terms.

–Beverly Hills Cop, starring Brandon T. Jackson as the son of film protagonist Axel Foley, is a continuation of the movie franchise following Foley’s son as he takes down rich and famous criminals in Beverly Hills. The films’ star Eddie Murphy is set to reprise the role of Alex Foley in the pilot and will executive produce with Shawn Ryan, who also wrote the script, as well as Ryan’s producing partner Marney Hochman.

–Backstrom is a drama based on the books of the same name by renowned Swedish criminologist and novelist Leif G.W. Persson. The series centers on Evert Backstrom, an overweight, offensive, caustic detective who struggles to change his self-destructive behavior.

–Friends With Better Lives is a multi-camera comedy revolving around a group of thirtysomething friends who each think the other has it better.

–The Selection, a highly-acclaimed, much buzzed-about pilot that failed to get picked up last year, is back on the slate with a new script. Based on the Young Adult novels of the same name, the series is set 300 years in the future, where working class young women are chosen by lottery to participate in a competition with 25 other ladies for the hand of the Royal Prince, and the chance to become the nation’s next queen.

–Company Town is a military drama from former Supernatural showrunner Sera Gamble and film director Taylor Hackford.
It tells the story of a scandal at a Naval base in Virginia, and the ways in which is affects the lives of both civilians and military personnel in the area. The series spans multiple generations and classes, exploring the friendship between two women who grew up together, and were once best friends, but are now on opposite sides of the Townie/Military divide.

–The Originals, a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries, follows Klaus (Joseph Morgan), who returns to the French Quarter of New Orleans, and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel.